Presto

14
PRESTO-TIMES
INCREASE IN GROUP PIANO INSTRUCTION
June, 1930
C 0 N T E S T
keep up the class all through the summer, but prob-
ably she will turn this request down for, like other
teachers, she needs a summer vacation, too.
Bel:eving that contests for prizes among sale.?
organizations in all fields of industry are excellent
as a stimulant of activity, Duane Wanamaker, vice-
president in charge of advertising of the Grigsby-
Grunow Co., announced a unique contest as part of
his talk before the Newspaper Advertising Executives'
This Is the Story of Persistent Pioneering
Association which met in Washington, D. C, on
May 20.
Work Done by One Piano Teacher Whose
Mr. Wanamaker offers a large, handsome cup as
Faith in Class Method Never Wavered.
Greater New Orleans Piano Playing Contest Brought an annual award to "the paper whose local adver-
tising staff performs the most distinguished service
The news columns of Presto-Times have contained,
to a Successful Conclusion a Few Days Ago.
in selling Majestic dealers on the furthering of their
from time to time, stories of success in piano class
So far as is known., it was the first event of its business with local advertising on Majestic radio
teaching, or instruction by the "group plan," as it
is called. Hardly an issue has gone to press without kind to be sponsored by the music teachers of a sets, tubes and electrical refrigerators." The period
over which the first contest takes place is from July
one or more articles telling of phases of this inter- community.
esting gradual unfoldmcnt of the system and pro- Philip Werlein, Ltd., through Parham Werlein, do- 1. 1930, to June 30, 1931. The local staff of any
cedure of piano lessons to groups rather than to nated a Wurlitzer Grand piano and two Wurlitzer paper which wins the trophy two years in succes-
individuals, as must be in school work.
Upright pianos, to be awarded to the winners of the sion retains permanent possession of the cup.
The Majestic organization is a firm believer in
the constant use of live, aggressive sales promotion
and advertising ideas and has. during the past year,
inaugurated the "Miss Majestic" popularity contest,
the Majestic Christmas Savings Club Plan, the Color-
Tone Test and many other such merchandising fea-
tures. This new idea of Mr. Wanamaker's makes it
possible for members of newspaper staffs to partici-
pate and win the honors.
CONSPICUOUS SUCCESS OF
A CHICAGO TEACHER
PIANO PLAYING CONTEST
AT NEW ORLEANS, LA.
FAMED VIOLINIST FLOPS
AS STREET FIDDLER
TWO TYPICAL, SCHOOL SCENES IN PIANO GROl'P IXSTKCCTION: A CHICAGO SOUTH
SIDE SCHOOL,.
This paper is now pleased to report the remarkable
success achieved by another teacher of a series of
piano classes in one of the large schools of Chicago's
South Side.
The lady who lias carried on this work began her
piano classes at that school where she had been a
teacher in the kindergarten department for several
years, in the fall term of 1928. Those who joined the
first classes took to the work so eagerly that other
classes were formed. The teacher's enthusiasm was
communicated to the pupils, so that it was a course
of splendid accomplishment all along. Cooperation
from the classes seemed to be intuitive.
Of the two illustrations here shown, the upper fig-
ure represents a class just closing its first term this
month, and the lower one shows a class which has
passed through three terms of ten lessons each.
Pupils in this class are able to perform to an appre-
ciable extent and many of them show a good deal of
talent. Parents and others who have attended their
recitals expressed pleasure and applauded their
playing.
To go back to those of 1928 is to find several
youngsters who have become quite proficient in play-
ing first and second grade piano pieces—some of
them remarkably so. All of these pupils, in all of
the classes, are entitled to the more credit because
the lessons have been given in the mornings, before
regular school hours or after the regular school had
closed in the afternoon; and none of them had missed
any of their other regular school lessons.
Also credit should be given to this teacher whose
strength of character is shown by the courage and
fidelity with which she carried on the work against
odds until today her piano classes are the pride of
that big school and the parents of these children who
have so soon and so early in life developed a talent
that will be a blessing and delight to them in years
to come. A Presto-Times reporter who visited the
school lately knows that the interest is lively in those
piano classes. The teacher had several requests to
grand and first prizes respectively.
In addition to
these contributions, Philip Werlein, Ltd., donated
a number of gold medals to be bestowed upon the
winners of honorable mention and recognition in the
eliminations and finals.
The sponsors of the contest, the New Orleans
Music Teachers Association, of which Mrs. Lewis S.
Connor is president, are enthusiastic in their praise
and appreciation of the colorful and outstanding suc-
cess of the venture.
More than six hundred entrants, between the ages
of six and eighteen years, took part. Seated on the
spacious stage of the Tulane Theatre were Parham
Werlein, master of ceremonies; T. Semmes Walmsley,
mayor of the city of New Orleans; Nicholas Bauer,
superintendent of the New Orleans public schools;
James M. Thompson, publisher of the New Orleans
Item-Tribune, which newspaper aided the contest
and donated a handsome silver loving cup to be
awarded to the winner of the grand prize.
In his address Mr, Werlein observed the impor-
tance of the position occupied by the piano as a basic
element in music, stressing the fact that no substitute
had ever been found, nor would likely ever be found,
as a medium of self-expression.
The first grand prize w r as won by Sidney Finkel-
stein, age 13. Miss Yvonne Le Baron, aged 10, and
Master Irving Lyons, Jr., aged 14, were awarded the
Wurlitzer upright pianos as second prizes. Silver
loving cups, donated by the New Orleans Music
Teachers Association, were won by Helen D'Antoni,
Liso Wehrman and Margery Magnelus; medals by
Louis de Tarnowsky, Florence Elizabeth Chauvin and
Mary L. Shelton.
The contestants winning honorable mention were
awarded rings: Irene Louis Bethea, Frances Pick-
ering, Charles Tabb George, Irene Louise Bethea,
Frances Pickering, Mary Martha Cavannah, Ruby
Mae Bethea, Dorothy Schmidt, J. D. Milliken and
Inez Bicknell.
The judges were Mrs. Carruth Jones, Baton Rouge,
An old man in a tattered frock coat, his long stringy
gray hair blowing in the wind, leaned against a lamp-
post on Michigan avenue, Chicago, and drew the
familiar strains of Schubert's "Ave Maria" from his
fiddle. Few passersby paused to listen, fewer still to
drop a coin in the cigar box hung from his neck.
Only one realized that this was not just another street
fiddler scratching on a squeaky box, but that the
"Ave Maria" was coming from a $40,000 Stradivarius
played by one of America's master violinists. And he
realized it only because he had recognized behind the
smoked glasses, beneath the dirty cap the face of
Jacques Gordon for nine years concert-meister of the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, who requires $1,000
before he will step upon a concert stage and play that
same piece for a wildly enthusiastic audience.
To settle a controversy, stirred up by the magazine,
"Time," one of whose correspondents had voiced the
Philistine opinion that "much musical hypocrisy exists
among our symphonic and concert audiences," Violin-
ist Gordon had gone out in this disguise to put the
matter to a practical test.
Thirty minutes of this produced a vast gathering
of fifty, thirty-six contributions and the munificent
sum of $5.61. Conceding victory to the Philistines,
Violinist Gordon put away the $40,000 Stradivarius
which Paganini had once played and departed—
probably to collect a $1,000 fee for his next concert—
in a hall.
STORY & CLARK RADIO
DIVISION OFFICERS
Of the newly organized radio division of the Story
& Clark Piano Co., Frank F. Story will be president
of the new organization; L. P. Bull, vice-president;
Walter Huth, secretary; H. W. Robertson, treasurer,
and Otto N. Frankfort, merchandising and adver-
tising manager.
GOOD PIANOS HOLDING PLACE.
"The beauty and efficiency of the piano are so great
that, of course, there is no danger of its disappearing
from use," says the New Orleans Times-Picayune."
"The instrument at its finest will continue to hold
first place for concert performance and its manufac-
ture will persist as a large and distinguished industry.
The uncertainty is as to the future of the cheaper,
mass production instruments that have suffered severe
reverses during recent times."
BUSH & LANE ELECTION.
At a meeting of the reorganized Bush & Lane
Piano Co., Holland, Mich., held in the latter part of
last month, Arthur L. Morris was elected president
and treasurer and C. L. Beach secretary. The com-
pany plans to push business vigorously and to that
end is carrying out an energetic industrial campaign.
La., president Louisiana Federation of Music Clubs;
Gertrude K. Mutton, Brookhaven, Miss., director of
music, Whitworth College; Albert V. Davies, Gulf-
port, Miss., director of music, Gulf Park College.
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